Inspiring Autumn Colors
Autumn is a very special season of the year in so many countries, full of colors and changes. There are many opinions on what are autumn colors and not a definitive answer… But the possibilities to play with those colors are amazing!
Morning at the studio, work on process, ©photo by Mamut Pastels.
Autumn brings back to me lots of memories. Memories of forests and trees, of fresh and natural water sources, filtered by layers of soil, sand, rocks and other natural materials, coming out from a fountain through a narrow pipe. Water that I could drank without fear while refreshing my face...
Selected natural elements for color samples, ©photo by Alain B. Mamut, 2021
Memories of dry, crisp, noisy leaves crunching under my feet on long walks. An explosion of colors that ranged from yellow to red, through all kinds of browns, ocher and oranges, and the green of wet moss also present.
Pic.1 “Developing and testing color”, Pic.3 “Matching the color”, Soft pastel on process ©photo by Mamut Pastels, 2021
Fall is not just colors or a stereotyped beautiful picture, but a heap of sensorial sensations. The transition between the hot summer to the cold winter, where everything apparently change and dies, in a kind of obligatory pause, a short rest to come back to life later with renewed energy.
Autumn color palette, Nature morte, Composition-photo by ©Mamut Pastels 2021
These last autumns are quite different for me from those of my childhood. I see everything with the eyes of color. My vision has changed and my interest in colors force me to observe everything in a different more sophisticated way. More focused on subtleties changes, on tones and gradients, on color combinations. Analyzing a single autumn leaf color is a perfect way to get into selection of tones. A confortable way of creating color palettes and develop new pastel sets.
Fall leaves color examples collected on October, photos by ©Mamut Pastels 2021
Playing with natural elements collected in the woods through long walks, brings me the opportunity to build a palette with the most vibrancy and brightness Autumn colors, near the Spring ones, or other color palettes with the ones considered as 'typical' autumn colours. Nature is a living laboratory in constant process, full of inspiration. A living open book full of examples that, in the case of autumn, only reveals its secrets for a few weeks a year and we have to take advantage of that window because it closes shortly after and does not open again until the following year... And always in a different and unique way.
Red leaf palette, Inspired bu nature ©photo by Alain Mamut pastels, 2021
Finding amazing colors in the woods… This incredible reddish mushroom is known as “Mataparents” (Boletus Satanas) Wich means “relatives-killer”, ©photo by Alain Mamut pastels, 2021
Nature offer us the opportunity to combine many rich and specific colors and tones to develop several color palette combinations. It is the master, the source of thousands of rich and captivating mixtures that can inspire us or that can be implemented in our daily life, as painters, designers, artists or color chart lovers... 
Some of the colors developed this Autumn, ©photo by Alain Mamut pastels, 2021
